MovieChat Forums > House of Dark Shadows (1971) Discussion > This movie has issues with a capital I

This movie has issues with a capital I

posted 11 years ago by Ray Ban
9 replies | jump to latest

This movie was chock full of head scratchers and goofs. If it weren't for the 1991 revival series and the 2012 film starring Johnny Depp, I wouldn't know who more than half these characters were because they were never really established in this film. For example, who are those secretary type ladies in the beginning who talk about signing checks? Who was Professor Stokes and what was his relationship to the Collins? Why was Dr. Hoffman staying with the Collins family? Perhaps the producers only intended for the small yet loyal fan base of the TV show to watch the film, but still.

Also, the pacing was off. No one could argue that this film dragged on because if anything it was quite frantic, but the scene changes were far too abrupt. The passing of anywhere from a few days to a month would occur from one scene to the next. Moreover, the scenes were not gradually eased into but rather it seemed a fair portion had been cut out to get to the meat of the story. On a related note, other other than the "main house" of Collinswood, the locations were never really established. I had no idea where people were half the time and the abrupt scene cuts only exacerbated matters.

More than half the scenes that were supposed to occur at night had sunny blue skies and lighting indicative that it was daytime. The ironic part is that it might be fairly dark in one scene with the sun setting, and then it would be quite bright outside in the very next scene which was supposed to be occurring concurrently or shortly thereafter in a matter of minutes or hours. Funny stuff.

How did glaring errors like the appearance of Roger Collins' reflection in the mirror *after* he is turned into a vampire make it past the editing process? I suppose you can rationalize and say his reflection might appear after he was killed since he is technically no longer a vampire, but I think I caught a glimpse of vampire Roger in the mirror pre-staking.

[–] sparkinthedust 11 years ago

To reply in reverse; they used some day-for-night shots, which Hammer themselves used a lot of (in those days). In other words, they either shot during the day with a filter, or they applied a filter effect after the fact.

Second; because the Dark Shadows TV-series was still so popular when this movie was released, it was scripted with the idea that those watching it, would already be familiar with the characters at hand (or at least that's what I've read).

Now I really liked the fast pace. I also thought the special effects were pretty good for the time period.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] Darren-24 11 years ago

Yes, a little bit was trimmed at the end of the Carolyn/David encounter. She lunges at him, fangs bared, arms outstretched. There are a few stills of it online.

It goes by quite fast, but Elizabeth says, "Doctor Hoffman has taken a sabbatical from her practice and is writing a history of our family..."

[–] moosefeathers 11 years ago

wow. never paid attention at all, eh?

Swing away, Merrill....Merrill, swing away...

[–] JanosSkorzeny 11 years ago

"Perhaps the producers only intended for the small yet loyal fan base of the TV show to watch the film, but still."

"Small ye loyal fan base"? Are you kidding? Remember, you're seeing this 40 years after the fact. In its day, Dark Shadows was a pop culture phenomenon. Record albums, board games, plastic models, action figures, trading cards. Its stars were celebrities who drew massive crowds wherever they went, and were constantly on talk shows and magazines.

Maybe the film hasn't aged well, but still, it's unfair to judge it out of time and context.

"This nut thinks he's a vampire!"
THE NIGHT STALKER

[–] ElectricWarlock 10 years ago

Well, I like the film very much. I have seen it many times and it never gets old to me. I think it captures the Gothic atmosphere of the original series quite well and is reminiscent of a Hammer Dracula film. Besides the original series, I think this film is the best Dark Shadows related production you're going to find.

I've been waiting for you, Ben.

[–] emp1966 9 years ago

When this movie came out, the series was in its first Parallel Time storyline. Like that storyline, Curtis decided for his big screen version since he had the budget to recreate his early Barnabas storyline with his established actors exploring other aspects of their original characters. He appears to have done so. The only person who probably had it bad was David Henesy. By now age 13 or 14, he probably found it hard to revert back to his mischievous days of 9 or 10. But he did manage it.

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] bsmith441 9 years ago

The film was made because for a few years Dark Shadows was doing quite well. I love the film but as was the case with the second one, Dan Curtis was told at the last second to severely edit the film. This was dictated by the film studio. In fact, there has been rumor for years they were planning to restore almost 30 minutes of footage to the Night of Dark Shadows film and even had David Selby and others come in and rerecord some of their lines. It is also interesting that in some ways the film which was bloodier than the series, might have heard Dark Shadows in the long run. Dark Shadows was hot at the time the film was made and its peak. About a year or so later, ratings declined some (though still good) and they seemed to run out of storylines. Dark Shadows was very popular among teenagers and some people have claimed that when many parents saw how bloody the movie was, they stopped allowing their children to watch Dark Shadows.